Fondest Desire
by skullcandy11
Summary: Writing Prompt: Area 51 has 4 levels of emergencies for a breakout. Level 3: Armed forces intervention. Level 2: Public statement. United Nations joint resistance. Level 1: Worldwide evacuation effort. Use of nuclear weapons permitted. Level 0: Call the number on the sticky note (and pray to everyone his demands aren't too high) Cross posted on AO3


Writing Prompt: Area 51 has 4 levels of emergencies for a breakout.

Level 3: Armed forces intervention.

Level 2: Public statement. United Nations joint resistance.

Level 1: Worldwide evacuation effort. Use of nuclear weapons permitted.

Level 0: Call the number on the sticky note (and pray to everyone his demands aren't too high)

My alterations: Area 51 is a subsection of S.H.I.E.L.D. that they released to certain paranoid members of the public to draw them off the scent of the main base (which is S.H.I.E.L.D.) back when people started questioning the government a bit too much, so, therefore, it is S.H.I.E.L.D. and not Area 51 that has the sticky note.

They had a close call back when the Chitauri first invaded along with Loki, but thanks to Stark they never had to hit rock bottom. But now, Thanos was involved. Thor and Loki had just come to inform us that Thanos was aiming to destroy Earth, because in the scheme of the nine realms he decided Midgard's mortals weren't that important, but the number of souls was just enough to be an acceptable gift to court Death with. He had all six Infinity Stones and was currently wreaking havoc on Earth, Midgard, whatever. Level Three security measures had been employed the second they got word Thanos was coming for Earth. The Avengers did the best they could along with all other armed military forces on Earth, which is where Level Two security measures came in. Everyone, not just those officially in the United Nations, but everyone came together, lending everyone and everything they could to help defend Earth against aliens for the second time.

Thanos had already destroyed all of South Africa and was working his way north when Fury finally managed to get the World Security Council to implement level One security measures. All of the militaries were currently working on shuttling all of their countries' citizens to other continents for safety while they did their best to contact Odin to ask for help in moving everyone off of Midgard, just for a little while, until Thanos goes away, but Odin refused, citing the safety of everyone living on any of the planets the mortals could possibly be moved to.

At this point, they had nothing left they could do. Their militaries were being swatted away like flies only to be disintegrated whenever they approached Thanos, and those were the lucky ones. The more unfortunate were taken control of and turned against their comrades, acting as just another barrier between Thanos and those against him.

Now all Fury could feel was dread, because he knew that to everyone else, once he called that number, everything would go back to normal, but for him, well, he didn't want to know what was going to happen to him. But as Nicholas J. Fury watched as all of Asia sank into the ocean, he heard Hill telling him that only China had been fully evacuated, nowhere else on that continent had been cleared; as JARVIS (leant to Earth by the as of two hours ago late Tony Stark) informed him that the displacement of the ocean due to the sinking of Asia has caused a massive tidal wave to sweep the globe, and it would reach them with the hour, he knew he had to call or else everyone would die, and Thanos would win.

He headed back to his office and turned his office phone upside down, yes, obvious, he knows, but no one else does, because it is too obvious a hiding spot for a spy like him. The sticky note looks as new as the day he inherited it back in 1952 from the previous leader when he took over as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Even before he knew exactly who the number on the sticky note contacted, he knew it was important, because sticky notes hadn't even been recognized as a thing until 1968. It is funny, the little things you remember when you are about to make a life-altering decision. He removes the sticky note, turns the phone back over and starts to dial. He knows he is about to receive a message from the World Security Council because there is a bug hidden in the programming for all existing phones in the world that alerts the Council if a certain set of numbers is inputted. The unshadowed faces of the different world leaders pop up on his computer screen, horror written all over their faces as they demand that he hang up, as they yell that this really isn't necessary, they can still beat Thanos, but he ignores them and steadfastly continues dialing until the phone starts ringing.

And ringing.

And ringing.

"Hello."

There doesn't exist an accurate description for the voice on the other side of the phone. The closest he can relate to the voice is otherworldly. It as if a million different voices are all saying the same thing, and each just a nanosecond apart from the other in timing. And the feelings the voice itself imparts are so crushing, it is as if you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. You consider that statement, though, and realize, it is. The future of Earth, and all those who still reside on it, are depending on you to succeed.

"I need your help," you say. You know they already know this, but the sudden weight of everything makes it so that you lose your carefully chosen words designed to hopefully elicit some type of sympathy from the being, in hopes that your punishment might possibly be slightly lessened if you convince them to pity you.

"Are you willing to accept the price?" That is all they ask. Such a simple question, yet so complex an answer.

You are nervous, you know you shouldn't question them, for it very might well make them angry, but you have to know.

"What will you do if I say yes?"

It is silent for a beat. You recognize that time is passing because you watch the tidal from the collapse of Asia get closer and closer. Funny, it seemed like you had longer, but you can see the wave from your wall of windows in your office on the Helicarrier, and you know there are only a few more minutes before it is the end of everything.

Just one second, but it draws out so long you begin to question reality more and more as your brain begins to compute the speed of time that you seem to be existing in. Finally, you hear, "I will give both you and Thanos your hearts' fondest desire."

You watch the tidal wave draw closer, it is higher than the Helicarrier, the shadow of it darkening the Earth as far as you can see. It gets closer and closer, you can feel the coolness of the water and the lack of light seeping into your bones. Your heart's fondest desire right now is for Earth to go back as it was before any of the damn aliens decided to show up and make everyone question everything they have ever known. If that is what you are promised, then Thanos can't destroy Earth, right? This way Thanos gets whatever the hell he wants, and you get no more aliens. Win-win as far as you can tell.

"Deal."

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Thanos POV

Suddenly Midgard was gone from his view, and he was sitting on one of the branches of Yggdrasil. A female form was standing in front of him, one side of her body showed the most beautiful woman in all of the worlds, and the other half was desiccated skin hanging off of a porous and crumbling skeleton. This, this is who he has been attempting to court all of these millennia! The love of his life! That whom he has been searching for since he decided no others were worthy of his affection. No one else was powerful enough to deserve him than her. Hela Lokison. Lady Death.

He waited for her to say something, but she merely stared at him, some might even say, through him. After a little while longer he couldn't take it anymore, he just had to know how impressed she was with his gift, because as far as he could remember, he had not yet destroyed all of the mortals on Midgard, and therefore his gift to her was not yet completed.

"Lady Death, I am so glad you have called upon me! Tell me, do you appreciate my gift?" He couldn't, wouldn't, suppress the boasting tone in his voice. He was proud of his courting gift. What more would Death want than more souls to inhabit her realm? To him it was perfect.

Hela stayed quiet a few moments longer, and then spoke, but it didn't seem to be directed at him for some reason.

"What shall I do with him?" she seems to ask the tree.

Before he can begin to question to whom she was speaking, the branches he leaned upon writhed and warped to encompass him so that he was trapped within the tree. He was fighting, but Yggdrasil was so much stronger. Suddenly he stilled as he felt his gauntlet containing the six Infinity Stones disappear from his arm and reappear hovering between Hela and some unassuming mortal facing away from him.

He watched as the gauntlet dissolved, leaving only the six stones floating in midair, and then cried out in rage as he watched the six most powerful gems in existence, controlling the mind, soul, power, space, time and reality dissolve into sparkling streams of light that were then absorbed into the Worlds' Tree.

The man that had yet to speak finally turned forwards to face him fully as he was struggling within the branches to rush to where the gauntlet had last been.

"You wish to court one of my own?" He asks. "Vey well, then."

He turned away from Thanos, dismissing him as if he no longer mattered, and turned back to Hela for a moment before beginning to walk away.

With each step, he seemed to become more transparent as he threw over his shoulder, "Impress upon him the exact nature of what it means to court Death." And then he was gone.

Even though he was gone, his steps still echoed in the otherwise silent void of space as Hela glided towards him. She smiled a horrific smile that reminded him of pain previously unknown, and he started to doubt his crusade as she finally was less than an inch away from him.

Still smiling.

Always smiling.

He was screaming.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry about Finite Incantatem! I'm working on it. I already have chapter four written and I am almost done with chapter five. I just want to finish chapter five before I post four so I can make sure I haven't caused any problems with the storylines.


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